This is a sad, sad day for me. I was so close! So close to finishing this lovely journal and putting it to one side in a protected corner. Things were going well; I had everything planned. I began preparing the cloth I picked with some Heat'n'Bond and tissue paper to make it easier for gluing. I cut a piece and things were going swimmingly!

After preparing everything from the cloth to the board to gluing the board to the cloth and creating the cover; the moment of truth had come. I placed the spine of my text block on the spine of the cover and began to glue the end pages. You would think that things would seem well at this point, right? Wrong! I've discovered my first error. I've placed the boards too far apart from each other. At first I thought all was over and I was going to have to scrap the cover but then a bright idea came to me -at least it seemed bright at the time- and that was to chop a 1/4" from each end of the cover to shorten it. I trimmed and trimmed and my hopes began to lift! "This could be a good fix!" I thought to myself but then.. My hopes came tumbling down once I placed the cover against the text block.

The boards were two short and about a 1/4" of the book was hanging off the edge.

The world around me dimmed and I began to lose hope. I didn't want to trim the book any further than I already have and I had little faith in my trimming abilities to begin with since I had already messed up the edges. I decided to be brave and do this process carefully. The first few millimeters were smooth and I felt m confidence grow with each stroke of the blade against the papers; digging deeper and deeper. I didn't want to extend the blade fearing it might bow in so I had yet another smart idea -and we all know how well the first one turned out- and opened up the book to make room for the blade.

Once I finished trimming I patted myself on the back and closed the book. Then I saw the end result.. My world shattered and I heard the cracks and the sound of shattering glass at the disappointment. I was so distraught by what I've witnessed that I actually sat down and sobbed; heartbroken over efforts somewhat gone to waste. The edge had slanted inwards because I opened the book and I also had to rip out the cover to do this so it looked very tragic.

I've decided that I wasn't going to go near this project or any bookbinding project for that matter without first buying a guillotine cutter. I have very poor cutting skills when it comes to smoothing out the edges of my books. The text block itself is salvageable and perhaps even the cover.. Maybe.